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Evan Dietrich-Smith Leaves Green Bay for Tampa Bay

The Green Bay Packers will enter the 2014 season with their fourth starter in four consecutive seasons at the center position after Evan Dietrich-Smith signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent on Friday.

According to Adam Caplan of ESPN, Dietrich-Smith's deal was for $14.25 over four years, including $7.5 million guaranteed. With a deal averaging roughly $3.5 million per season, one could infer that the Packers didn't exactly value Dietrich-Smith very highly with plenty of salary-cap space available.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has publicly lobbied for the Packers to keep Dietrich-Smith on his weekly radio show on the ESPN Radio affiliates in Milwaukee and Madison, but he'll have a new exchange partner this upcoming season.

Back in February at the NFL Combine, head coach Mike McCarthy said, "If you look at our depth chart right now, this is the best group of offensive linemen from a depth standpoint that we’ve had in my time in Green Bay." Some of that depth has taken at hit with the departure of Dietrich-Smith.

The Packers find themselves back to Square 1 at center after Scott Wells left after being named a Pro Bowler in the 2011 season.

In 2012, the highly-respected Jeff Saturday was signed as a stop-gap solution, but when he proved to be past his prime, Dietrich-Smith was inserted into the starting lineup late in the season, allowing Green Bay to release Saturday the next offseason.

Dietrich-Smith started all 16 games in 2013 and graded out as the eighth-ranked center in the NFL, according to ProFootballFocus.com (premium content).

Over the course of his five-year career in Green Bay, Dietrich-Smith also showed his versatility by being able to play guard as well. In 2012, he notably was the recipient of a stomp from Detroit Lions defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh while filling in at guard.

The Packers are now forced to look for a new starter at center, and the player who may get the first crack is J.C. Tretter, the fourth round draft choice of the Packers' last season.

Tretter may have loads of potential, but the Packers would be taking a major risk by banking on a player who has never played major college football and has never played a single NFL snap. After breaking his ankle during an offseason practice, Tretter began last season on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list before being activated to the 53-man roster late last year.

Another in-house option the Packers have at their disposal would be transitioning T.J. Lang to center full-time. Last year, Lang played center in an emergency situation in two games after Dietrich-Smith went down with a knee injury.

Any such move would probably be made in light of how highly the team views Lang at guard. A move to center would represent his third position switch in three seasons, after switching from left guard to right guard last year.

Garth Gerhart, who's been on the practice squad for the past two seasons, is another possibility.

The Packers also have the option of addressing the position in the NFL Draft, although there's not many centers in this year's draft class that are viewed as can't-miss, high-round prospects.

One final avenue available to the Packers could be free agency, where Alex Mack is able to sign with another NFL team despite receiving the transition tag from the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns, however, have the right to match any offer Mack receives. The value of the transition tag for offensive line is just above $10.0 million, although Mack does not have to accept a contract of that value with another team.

Brian Carriveau is the author of the book "It's Just a Game: Big League Drama in Small Town America," and editor of Cheesehead TV's "Pro Football Draft Preview." To contact Brian, email [email protected].

That's a meaningless distinction in my book. He wasn't competing to be the starting OC. Calling him a "backup OC" is extremely misleading. He's an above average interior OL that hasn't been used much at OC but has shown he can do it. Last year, when EDS got hurt ingame, he slid over with no practice and did fine. I see no reason to think that moving to the spot full time and preparing each week there will make him worse.

EDS has about the same "ceiling" as Tretter. They had virtually the same measureables, with EDS scoring slightly better in the shuttle, cone, 10 yard-split, and bench. The difference lies in EDS having played played professional football as well as having experience at the actual position. Which some people, like Aaron Rodgers, might put some value and appreciate.

Ted should have paid a slight premium on a 2 years deal with EDS. You can't let No Income tax in FLA be the difference in the health and availability of your franchise.

Not a huge mistake now, but could be if we suffer any more losses in the ever so important fumble recovery drill. It's football somebody's going to get hurt.

Could they be converted and succeed like Unger and Goodwin and others? Sure. But the fact remains one hasn't played a single game at center in the NFL or college (Tretter) and the other has played only a handful of snaps (Lang).

So, yeah, neither are actually centers.

(Also, for what it's worth, Lang just said on Twitter that he will not be playing center.)

Actually Woodson played a lot of nickel and dime. Shields took Al Harris' spot. Tramon moved to Woodsons old spot. The packers were mostly in nickel and dime after the very first play of the game. Technically shields wasn't the starter, but for all practical purposes he was.

Raji does seem to lack a little of that nasty aggressive defensive mentality. I'd play raji at center before playing Sharrod at guard, or Brad Jones at ILB over OLB, or Mike Neal at OLB over DE/DT, or Perry at LOLB over 4-3RE, or Morgan Burnett as an "in the box" safety.

I'm glad we got Raji back. He's got true NT size with very elite physical attributes. He'll be worth $4 million+ if he ever decides to turn it on. Bringing back the Nasty Johnny Jolly and drafting another high energy nasty DT/NT prospect in Zach Kerr might help Raji do just that.

thee #1 steal of the 2014 NFL draft, DT/NT Zach Kerr in about the 6th Round. Zach brings it like Jolly, always produces, and has elite physical attributes.

His tape reminds me of Dontari Poe and Haloti Ngata with his speed and pursuit to make tackles all over the field. He's got one of the best power swim moves I've ever seen with explosive lateral and up the field movement. He can beat blocks with speed, power, or just rip off them. He's a bigger, quicker, faster Johnny Jolly.

I'd have little problem with taking Kerr in the 2nd round much less the 5th, 6th, or 7th.

The fact that the powers that be didn't rate EDS highly enough to offer him a good enough deal says everything. TT keeps his own if they're good enough, see Sitton, Lang Nelson etc EDS obviously isn't I'm sure there's a plan and the line will be sorted.

Please. This team still needs a lot and really has done nada to improve itself and in my opinion did a few things to make this team worse then last year.
Lions Picked up a fast receiver and are looking at a top receiver in the draft.
Vikes get a nose tackle, 2 dbacks, and resign a top DE.
The Bears now have two new DE pass rushers and a MLB.
And all three draft before we do. So if they think they know what we absolutely need, one of them will pick the guy to screw us.

This is very disappointing. Can't know why EDS left or whether TT tried to keep him. I can't disagree more with many of the comments above. EDS is a big loss. MM won't want to move Lang to center. The packers have no one to play center. No one. Someone obviously will end up playing there, but Tretter has never played center, never played major college ball, and has never played a snap in the NFL. Huge gamble to suggest he will be an upgrade over EDS. Better hope that we get two good tackles out of Bulaga (comes back healthy), Bakhtiari (makes the jump because he was in fact a well below starting LT last year) and Sherrod because it is really hard even for a Kuhn to give help to both tackle positions and to the center.

Not at all. But scouts and GMs have misjudged talent before. I would think that few GMs would pencil in a 4th round rookie as a starter without some qualms. I have posted over the last year that it was unfortunate that Tretter got hurt so early last year. It seems that GB wanted to groom him to replace EDS while EDS was still under contract, which I thought was smart. I posted on another web site today that perhaps Tretter showed something when he came back the last few weeks of the season. If the coaching staff and/or TT saw enough of Tretter, then fine, and I am less uneasy about losing EDS. But if Tretter was not healthy enough to show what he could do when he came off PUP, then even scouts and GMs sometimes make mistakes on prospects. EDS was a known quantity. When Bulaga got hurt, the coaches had seen enough of Bakhtiari to have confidence in him. As well as Bakhtiari did and as good as he might become with an off-season of strength conditioning, I thought he was a well below average LT.

We will see what GB does with the O-line. I think we will get two good starting tackles out of Bulaga (hopefully healthy), Bakhtiari (who I hope/expect makes a jump in his 2nd year) and Sherrod (who I have the highest hopes for as he was a 1st round talent). It is just that w/o EDS, more things have to go right for GB. With EDS, I thought we had a good chance to have an excellent O-line. W/o EDS, more things have to go right, and there is less depth.

Yes, I agree that Bakhtiari was a surprise bright spot of ANY rookie last year, and to have a 4th round draft pick come in start at LT and be a legitimate player like he was makes him a gem of a draft pick. Plus, he has the potential to get better too, as many players make a jump between their 1st and 2nd years. But, not grading him on a curve, yes, I think his actual play last year was that of a below average starting LT in the NFL. I hope that Tretter turns out to be another 4th round gem, and/or that he showed the coaches enough when he came off PUP that GB was okay with losing EDS. I was excited about how good the O-line could be with EDS at center and Bulaga and Sherrod coming back. Now there is less room for error. We need a couple of things to go right, that's all. Bulaga and Sherrod (health), or a jump from Bakhtiari, and someone to emerge at center. There is plenty or room for optimism at O-line. I really did not mean to diss Bakhtiari.

TT seems to be on top of things now.......ever since the debacle of Barbre and Giacomini.....so I'm not worried too much about oline. It seems to be getting better and better. Much better than the Colledge and Spitz days.

This will prove to be a good nonsigning. If the Pack signed EDS they would be committed to him for three or four years while the better player languished on the bench. In sports, you sometimes have to gamble, take risks and get the superior athletes on the field.

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